2013 Outdoor National Championships - Day 2 Recap

11 more national champions crowned on Friday

May 24, 2013

By Kyle Schmidt, NAIA Media Coordinator

MARION, Ind. – (Complete results) Friday crowned nine individual and two relay team national champions during the second day of competition at the 2013 NAIA Men’s & Women’s Outdoor Track and Field National Championships, which are being held at Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Ind.

It was a great day for competition at Indiana Wesleyan as the sun was shining with temperatures in the low 60’s. Doane (Neb.) leads both the men’s and women’s team standings with one day remaining. The Doane men lead with 45 points while Concordia (Ore.) is second with 24.33 points. On the women’s side, Doane leads a congested top of the standings with 25 points. Oklahoma Baptist is currently second with 23.75 points and Concordia (Ore.) is third at 22 points.

The Men’s Decathlon and Women’s Heptathlon opened the day with morning competition. Rob Keeney of Doane won the Decathlon with 7,195 points, which was 204 more points than the next competitor. Briana Vander Woude of Dordt (Iowa) captured the victory in the Heptathlon with 5,098 points to outdistance the field by 269 points. Jenna Higgins of Mount Mercy (Iowa) broke the Heptathlon Javelin record on Friday with a throw of 47.16-meters. The previous record was 45.58-meters and was set in 1993.

Four finals on the track were contested today in the 4x800-Meter Relay and the 3,000-Meter Race-walks. Morningside (Iowa) won the Men’s 4x800 Relay in near record time of 7:26. Morningside was just 0.2 seconds off the record that has stood since 2004. British Columbia cruised to the Women’s 4x800 Relay championship. British Columbia held a sizable lead throughout the race and finished in a time of 8:58.

Missouri Baptist swept the men’s and women’s race-walks. Alejandro Chavez won the Men’s 3,000-Meter Race-walk in a time of 21:03. It is the first time since 2007 that the winner of the event was not from British Columbia. Mereth Zalba claimed the national championship in the Women’s 3,000-Meter Race-walk. Zalba won with a time of 25:17.

Five field events crowned national champions on Friday. Gabriella Dixson (pictured top left) of Concordia (Ore.) won the Women’s Shot Put with a throw of 15.61-meters while Kathleen Mulligan of Carroll (Mont.) took the Women’s Triple Jump title with a mark of 12.17-meters. Mulligan won the championship by a mere .01-meter.

The host Indiana Wesleyan earned a national championship on Friday when Darrian Mikell out-jumped the field in the Men’s Long Jump. Mikell won the crown with a leap of 7.41-meters for the second Men’s Long Jump championship in four years for Indiana Wesleyan. Willy Irwin of Concordia (Ore.) earned the victory in the Men’s Discus with a throw of 56.96-meters while Mike Edwards won the final individual championship on Friday in the Men’s High Jump. Edwards beat the field with a height of 2.16-meters.

Saturday concludes the three-day event at Indiana Wesleyan. The final day will crown 29 more national champions plus two team championships. Saturday will begin early with the Men’s and Women’s Marathons at 6 a.m. EDT. Field events begin at 1 p.m. while track races start at 2 p.m.